Human
by bionic4ever
Summary: Dan2. A new President has taken office. He and his Secretary of State believe Steve and Jaime aren't human as much as they are robots, and they've ordered the newly happy couple to be deactivated and neutralized.
1. Chapter 1

**HUMAN**

Chapter One

"Oscar, this is the most _inhuman_, unbelievable...there's just no way -" Rudy Wells was stunned almost beyond his ability to speak. "I realize the Secretary's new, but how could he think...how could he _dare_...? Do Jaime and Steve know?"

"No. Jaime's always been so sensitive about being only 'half human', as she puts it; this would tear her apart. I'd like to tell Steve and get his input, bot now that he and Jaime have grown so close again, I don't think he'd be able to keep it from her, and I don't have the right to ask him to -"

"Don't you think that both have a right to know, given what could potentially happen to them?" Rudy said, very quietly.

"Probably," Oscar conceded, "but how do I do that? Jaime and Steve are the closest I've ever come to having a family. How do I tell them their new President and Secretary of State don't have the understanding to see that they're human beings? That they see them as 'unnecessary robots' and have demanded that we de-activate and neutralize them within 30 days?" Oscar's voice began to break. "Their own government is going to put them in wheelchairs..."

Rudy finished the horrific thought. "Or worse."

------

Steve grinned with anticipation as his car sped up the long driveway. He couldn't wait to see Jaime and tell her the good news - his meeting with Jack Hansen had gone even better than either of them had dared to hope, and their lives were - _finally_ - about to become normal again.

Jaime had been framed for multiple felonies, the worst being Theft of Government Property (four million dollars' worth) and triple homicide. She'd ended up in a tiny, hellish NSB isolation cell called The Hole, and Steve had broken her out so the two of them could prove her innocence. Once they'd accomplished that, all charges against Jaime had been dropped and all that remained was the little matter of Steve's having aided a federal prisoner's escape from custody. Thanks to Jack Hansen of the NSB, that charge, too, had finally been dropped. Legally and officially, both Jaime and Steve were now free.

While they'd been fugitives working together to catch the real criminals, Jaime and Steve not only discovered that they were still a remarkably effective working team; they also learned that the spark between them had never truly died. It had been merely dormant, like a wildfire that requires exactly the right conditions before it bursts into flames. Once they'd acknowledged their deep feelings for each other, the bond between them grew rapidly in both strength and intensity, exactly like a wildfire. It was less than a month since their short stint as wanted felons, and one week since Jaime had moved in, seamlessly melding their hearts and lives together as though they'd never been apart.

Jaime waited nervously on the front porch, where she'd been since kissing Steve for luck and waving goodbye early that morning. She'd found herself too restless to sit, too nervous to pace (it made her feel worse) and so had ended up sitting on the porch railing, swinging her feet and trying to think only positive thoughts. They wouldn't charge Steve with a felony...would they? Life couldn't possibly be cruel enough to tear them out of each other's arms _again_. She heard his car turn into the driveway and nearly flew to the end of the stone-lined front walk so she could see him at the first possible second.

Steve beamed at her as he stepped from the car. "It's over, Sweetheart," he said, pulling her into his strong arms for a long, joyful bear hug. "Hansen has a heart after all. It's finally over."

------

Rudy Wells faced the biggest ethical dilemma of his life. The Hippocratic Oath stated _First, do no harm_, but what he'd been told he must do would harm his patients - his **friends** - immeasurably and permanently. They wanted him to remove all of Jaime and Steve's bionic limbs and circuitry and turn the parts and all relevant files over to a team of government scientists. Rudy wasn't sure he could bring himself to do it; he knew there might be penalties, but that didn't concern him. What they were asking was unconscionable! He also knew, though, that the procedure would be performed with or without him. In another doctor's hands, one who was unfamiliar with bionics, Jaime and Steve would most likely die.

------

"It should be illegal to be this happy," Steve said as he brushed the hair from Jaime's face with gentle, loving hands and then kissed her.

"Uh-uh," she replied softly. "I've had enough of life on the wrong side of the government, thank you very much."

------


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

"The Secretary's on line one," Callahan told Oscar, who sighed.

"Well, that's the cherry on my sundae," he mumbled. "Thanks, Peggy." Steeling himself, Oscar picked up the phone. "Good morning, Mr. Secretary," he said with mock cheerfulness. "What can I do for you?" He nodded to Peggy, who was headed out of the office and across the street to the FBI building to pick up some paperwork.

Oscar listened, frowning, deep stress lines creasing his face. "No, Sir, I haven't de-activated them yet. It's only been three days, though, and you gave us thirty. Sir, could I respectfully suggest you meet Colonel Austin and Miss Sommers before deciding -" Oscar held the phone a foot from his ear and still winced at the loud, angry timbre of his boss's voice. "I realize the decision's already been made, but I believe getting to know them as _people_ would help you understand...Yes, Mr. Secretary, I know that, but the President has never met them, either. We're talking about two flesh-and-blood **_human beings_**, not robots or machines, and you're asking us to cripple and quite possibly _kill_ them. Sir, I hope you'll forgive me, but I need to hang up before I say something extremely disrespectful." Oscar slammed the receiver into its cradle, not particularly caring if he was terminated as a result.

"_I'd like to de-activate you, you son of a.." _Oscar muttered under his breath. Deciding to see if Rudy had come up with any ideas, he opened his heavy, wooden office door, intending to head downstairs to find the doctor. He stepped into the outer office to find a most unexpected sight. **_Jaime_**. Her skin had paled to a near death-like pallor, and Oscar knew by her tearful, fear-widened eyes that her ear had picked up the entire conversation.

"_De-activate_? What the hell is that?"

Oscar put a comforting, fatherly arm around Jaime's shoulders. "Let's go into my office, Babe, and we'll talk."

"NO!" Gently but firmly, she shook his arm away. "Oscar, I need a knife."

"For what?"

"I'm gonna go and visit our new Secretary of State, and -"

"No, Jaime. You need to calm down and not go rampaging in there with a knife. You wouldn't make it past the Secret Service. They'd find it, and this time you would go to prison."

"I'm not gonna stab him," Jaime explained, tears pearling quickly on her cheeks, "but if I cut my finger and he saw real, _human_ blood come out..." She began to sob in earnest.

Oscar took her by the arm and led her back into his office. "Is Steve with you?" he asked, easing her gently into a chair.

"Rudy's office," Jaime managed to choke out.

The big wooden door opened, and Steve, apparently finished talking with Rudy, came in, his face ashen and grim. Oscar looked at Jaime, who was nearly incoherent, then back at Steve, who had rushed over to kneel on the floor at her side, wrapping her in his arms.

"I'm guessing Rudy told you the same thing Jaime just overheard me talking about," Oscar said softly.

"Yep."

"I...I've learned my lesson about listening through doors," Jaime told them, her voice shaking almost as badly as she was. "But...can they really..._kill_ us?"

"I will not allow that to happen," Oscar replied, with more confidence than he actually felt. "Rudy and I are working on it."

Steve had known Oscar for many years, and considered him a close friend. Right now, Steve could see that his friend was just as worried and scared as he and Jaime were.

------

Jaime fixed dinner, but had no appetite for food. Steve wanted desperately to find something he could say to reassure her, but all he could do was hold her close and try to give her some comfort.

Later in the evening, he sat with her on the front porch as the last of the sun disappeared below the horizon. "It's not that I'm afraid to die," Jaime told him wistfully. "I'm not; did it twice already, and it's not something I'm worried about." She turned and looked directly into Steve's eyes. "But it's so unfair. We've just found each other again, and now we won't even get the chance to have a life together. Somewhere along the line, fate must've decided that you and I can never be allowed to just **_be_** together."

"Except, this isn't fate, Sweetheart; it's two people with a lot of power who didn't take the time to inform themselves before they made a very bad decision. But it's a decision they're going to un-do. I'll take care of that," Steve promised.

"How? How will you get the _President_ to change his mind?"

"Well, the Secretary might not know it yet, but he and I have a meeting tomorrow, first thing in the morning."

------

"How are you, Babe?" Oscar asked quietly. "Feeling any better this morning?" Jaime had accompanied Steve as far as downtown DC, and she was paying Oscar a visit while Steve tried to reason with unreasonable people.

"Steve says he's got this taken care of," Jaime replied, "but he won't tell me what he plans to say...or do." She smiled, just a little. "Whatever he does, it's gotta be better than bleeding all over the man's desk, right?"

Oscar chuckled with her. "He didn't tell me anything about it, if you were about to ask that," he said.

"How'd you know?"

"I'm in Intelligence, remember?" Oscar got up and patted Jaime's shoulder as he walked over to the window. "I also know that with Steve on your side, you've got nothing to be afraid of. He's a one-man militia when it comes to protecting you."

"Yeah."

Oscar looked out the window at the various federal offices, the huge fountain out front, the passing fire trucks, and the hundreds of passing pedestrians. "Do you regret moving here from Ojai?" he asked Jaime, not certain he wanted to hear the answer.

"Steve's here, in DC," she said simply, joining Oscar at the window. She, too, looked out at the sprawling city, watching as an ambulance, police cars, another fire truck and several more ambulances roared past. The sounds of multiple wailing sirens began to pierce the air. "Must be some fire," Jaime noted, not overly alarmed. A city this size had some sort of so-called 'disaster' almost every day.

Oscar's assistant, Russ, came bursting through the inner office door, and it was no longer an everyday disaster, and no longer a normal day at all. "Oscar, we just received word that the Harry Truman Building has been bombed. The Vice President was over there, and he's on his way to the hospital. They can't find the Secretary of State..."

Oscar turned to Jaime and caught her just as she began to sway with shock. "Oscar," she whispered, willing it to not be true, "that's where Steve is..."

------


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Jaime ran toward the Truman Building, making it to the area of the State Department's headquarters even before Rudy and Oscar, in a Medivac chopper, could get there. It was a horrifying sight, reminding her of a really bad war movie. The building itself was hidden by a thick wall of smoke, through which she could barely make out the even more frightening glow of fire.

The entire block was surrounded by a ring of police and MPs, but Jaime flashed her government ID and just kept going. It was almost impossible to see, but the Medivac, attempting to land as close as possible, cleared some of the smoke with its blades. Jaime heard Oscar's voice, telling her to wait, so she stopped, hoping he had more information.

He did. "Hansen spoke to the Vice President," Oscar told her, shouting to be heard through the chaos. "Steve had just checked in with the receptionist when the first bomb went off, and -"

Jaime gasped. "_The first?_"

"Witnesses heard at least three explosions; maybe as many as five," Oscar said. "It's possible Steve heard the first one and made it out the door."

"Or, he might've already gotten in the elevator to go upstairs, right?"

Oscar couldn't look at Jaime; he couldn't bear to see the grief he knew was in her eyes. "The Vice President was on his way out, so his back was to the lobby, but the last thing he heard was the elevator doors opening. He was hit in the head by debris on the front sidewalk."

"The elevators are stalled now," Jaime thought out loud, "and fire travels down the shafts...I have to get in there!" She disappeared into the thick, choking cloud before Rudy and Oscar could stop her.

Visibility inside the building was even worse, if that was possible. The power was off, and smoke and debris precluded even sunlight from lighting the way through the windows. Jaime wished she could turn off the bionics in her ear, because she was picking up moans, cries and calls for help from all over. She didn't hear the voice she wanted most to hear, though. Was he even in here?

She tried to picture the building's layout in her mind. Where were the elevators? Jaime headed in that direction, groping in the darkness, but stopped, frozen in place by the cry of a small child. She bent down and found a tiny hand that grasped her own with all its might. Holding the little hand tightly, Jaime picked up the child, who she thought couldn't have been more than two years old, and carried her out the front doors.

"Jaime!" Rudy's voice called to her, and she followed the glow of his flashlight, handed him the child and turned to go back in.

Oscar grabbed her arm. "The building's not safe. The Fire Chief thinks it's coming down."

"Then I have to go back in - Steve's in there."

"We don't know that."

"I do."

"_Stay here_," Oscar said firmly. "That's an official order."

"Then fire me!" she called over her shoulder as she re-entered the building.

------

While only a few minutes had passed, most of the cries had faded to silence. Jaime figured that some of those people had been carried out by the firemen, but not all of them. She found the first floor elevator, and the doors were cool, so she knew the car was further up the line and, quickly locating the stairwell, she ran to the next floor. The doors there were still cool, but when she reached the third floor, she nearly fell into the open shaft. Reaching upward, she discovered the stalled elevator, about 3/4 of the way up to the next floor. Its inner doors were closed, which was good; the fire would have a harder time reaching the occupants.

Jaime reached deeper into the shaft and tentatively tugged the cable beneath the car. It seemed strong, so she pulled a little harder, but the car didn't budge.

"Hello...?" came the faint cry from the elevator car. "This is Secretary Graves...is someone there?"

_The Secretary!_ Jaime knew if she went for help, there might be no time left to get him out; she was on her own. "Hang on, Sir - I'm coming!" she called before running up one more flight of stairs. She looked toward the elevator, and didn't need Steve's bionic vision to see what was happening. The car's inner doors were still tightly closed, but the elevator was in serious trouble. Jaime could see the elevator clearly due to the flames pouring out of the shaft, over the top of the stalled car.

The metal of the doors was very hot, making it a little bit pliable, and tried to pull them apart with her right hand, then, without thinking, braced against them with her left hand and cried out in pain, jerking away from the doors. Gritting her teeth with determination, she stepped forward again and kept straining against the doors, which seemed to have melted shut. A second hand grabbed the door, above her own.

"Need a hand?" a voice behind her said simply.

"Steve?" Jaime's vision was further clouded by tears of relief. "Thank God! I - I couldn't find you, and...Steve, the Secretary's in there."

"I know," he told her. "The car was stuck halfway between floors, and I got it this far, pulling up on the cable, then it stopped moving altogether."

"I was pulling it down from underneath." They both jumped back, nearly singed by the flames. "Steve, it's gonna snap."

"Let's both try the doors from here," he suggested. "We have to do it fast; once the door opens, even a crack, fire's gonna pour in there. You ready?"

"Let's do it."

Together, they forced the door open, reached down and pulled the Secretary out, setting him safely on the floor just before the cable snapped. The floor began to sway and shake beneath them.

"Jaime, run!" Steve told her. "I've got the Secretary."

Jaime felt a fine mist in her face, and she sank to the ground, hearing an ominous voice declare "No - _I've_ got the Secretary," as the little bit she could still see faded to nothing.

------


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

"Jaime?" A voice, sounding distorted and far away, yanked Jaime out of the darkness. "I think she's finally waking up. Can you hear me, Honey?"

"Steve?" she mumbled, not yet fully conscious. She opened her eyes and was struck by a blinding pain that forced her to close them again. "Steve..."

"No, Honey; it's Rudy."

"Have to...find...Steve..."

Rudy shook his head and turned to Oscar. "She's out again." He took a reading from the monitor by her bed and motioned for Oscar to follow him out of the ICU cubicle.

"She's pulling out of the coma," the doctor noted, "and her vital signs are stronger."

"How soon do you think I can talk to her?" Oscar asked.

"Probably in a few hours, but not for very long; she'll be pretty weak for a while. And I've got a feeling that when she realizes Steve is missing, she'll have to be sedated."

Oscar nodded. "She'll want to look for him herself."

"Exactly." Rudy knew the answer, but asked anyway. "Have you heard from Steve?"

"Not a word. Graves is still missing, too, and it's been more than 48 hours..."

Rudy grimaced. "I'm surprised the NSB isn't waiting outside Jaime's cubicle with handcuffs."

"No - even Jack Hansen realizes no one who'd cause that much destruction would stop long enough to rescue a toddler. He knows Jaime had nothing to do with this."

"And Steve?"

Oscar frowned. "Put it this way: we need to find Steve - and the Secretary - _yesterday_."

------

Oscar didn't mention it to Rudy, but Hansen was in the medical building, in a basement office, waiting for an update on Jaime's condition. He and Oscar were - for once - working together.

"Is she awake yet?" he asked, rising to his feet as soon as he saw Oscar.

"Almost," Oscar told him. "Her doctor says she should be able to answer a few questions by tonight. What about the receptionist?"

"She didn't make it. The Vice President doesn't know anything other than what he already told us, so that leaves one person who may or may not have seen anything in the lobby. Hopefully she'll know something."

"We can't push her too hard, though," Oscar replied.

"Goldman, I know Colonel Austin isn't the sort of person to go around blowing up government buildings, but until we have evidence to the contrary..."

Oscar nodded grimly. "I know."

------

Jaime tossed restlessly in her sleep. Steve's face moved in and out of her smoke-filled dreams, smiling at her but always, maddeningly, just out of reach. Oscar, seated at her bedside, listened as she kept calling out Steve's name, sounding more frantic each time, and when tears began streaming down her face, he reached out to gently awaken her and hopefully end her torment.

"Hi, Babe," he said, smiling at Jaime as her eyes slowly opened.

"Where's Steve?"

"We haven't found him yet," Oscar told her softly. "I was hoping you could help us, if you're feeling up to it."

"What do you need me to do?" she asked, swinging her legs over the side of the bed and trying to sit up.

"Easy, Babe. You can't help anyone if you're passed out on the floor. Just lie back and rest."

"But...you said you need my help." Jaime's face was pale, but her eyes were determined. "Steve needs my help." She began to stand, wobbling severely. Rudy and Oscar caught her, one on each side, just as she plummeted toward the floor.

"Jaime, you need to stay in bed," Rudy told her. "Oscar just has a few questions for you. Then I'll give you something to help you rest. Ok?"

Jaime nodded.

"When you first got to the Truman Building, was the Vice President's ambulance still there?"

"No. I think it had just pulled away."

"So you and Steve ran up the stairs from the lobby," Oscar said gently, not wanting to push Jaime too hard, but desperately needing any information she could give him.

"No," she answered, straining for the memory, "he was already upstairs, pulling the elevator cable, trying to get the Secretary out."

" He didn't go up when you did? Are you sure?"

"Positive." Jaime closed her eyes, returning in her mind to the smoke-filled lobby.

"Are you in pain, Honey?" Rudy asked, stepping quickly to the bed.

"No. Just...picturing it. Oscar, he wasn't down there."

"Maybe he was in the lobby and went upstairs when you were bringing the little girl outside?" Oscar theorized.

"No - I couldn't really see, but he could, and he'd have helped me, or at least said something..." her voice trailed off.

"That's probably enough for tonight," Rudy said, closely eyeing the monitors.

"More than enough," Oscar confirmed with a smile. "Jaime, thank you. I think you just solved the case."

------

Hansen stared incredulously at Oscar. "Are you sure?"

"Jaime is. Besides, you know as well as I do that the pieces didn't fit, the way he put them together. This is sad, but it also makes sense."

Jack Hansen nodded. "Well, then let's go get him."

------

"Excuse me - Sir?" Oscar said, stepping in front of the man who was coming down the sidewalk.

"Yes?"

"Where was Colonel Austin when you left the Truman Building, the day of the fires?"

"I've already given my statement," the man said, brusquely. "Excuse me."

Oscar was not one to be easily deterred. "You don't have anything else to add? Anything you might want to correct?"

"I'm late for an appointment."

"You'll be missing that appointment," Jack Hansen said, stepping out to block the man's path. "Mister Vice President, you're under arrest."

------


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

The next morning, Oscar waited impatiently outside Jaime's cubicle, with a very special surprise for her. Rudy smiled. "She'll be awake soon. I'm sure we'll be seeing a much more rapid recovery now."

The two men watched through the glass as Jaime slowly stirred and opened her eyes. She looked up into the only pair of eyes she truly longed to see, and reached out for the comfort of his arms. "Steve!"

"Hi, Sweetheart."

"I...thought you were dead." She sat up in the bed, falling eagerly into his arms and burying her face in his chest, sobbing out tears of relief.

"To tell you the truth, so did I."

"How...?"

"The Vice President lied, Jaime," Oscar said, joining them. "I had a hunch, but couldn't prove it. Then I talked to you, and I knew that with Steve's safety in jeopardy you wouldn't tell me anything you weren't sure about; you gave me the last piece of the puzzle."

"What? How did I do that?"

"The elevator would've stalled with the first blast, so he couldn't have heard the bell from the doors at the same instant the debris hit him. That might've been an honest mistake, but in his statement he claimed that he heard Steve call the Secretary from the lobby. If Steve was already upstairs and Graves was in the elevator, someone else had called him to the lobby and that entire statement had to be a lie."

"How did you find Graves and Steve?"

"A little white lie on my part," Oscar chuckled. "I told the Vice President we had a witness who heard him call Graves to the lobby, and he cracked like an egg."

"But...why?"

"Personal power. When Jack and I stopped him, he had a vial in his pocket, of a nearly undetectable poison. He was on his way to see the President. I suppose he thought that if the government was in chaos, he could assume the office without anyone thinking to ask questions."

Steve brushed the last of the tears from Jaime's face. "He was also the one who convinced the President and Graves that we were machines, hoping we wouldn't be around to catch onto the plan. He didn't expect Oscar to argue and be given 30 days."

"So...we're ok?" Jaime asked.

"As human as ever," Steve confirmed, pulling her close again and kissing her.

"_Human_;" Jaime whispered, "what a beautiful word!"

END


End file.
